Musings on Art from NYC to Berlin

Joseph Beuys and Andy Warhol have often been compared, although the meaning of their work couldn’t be more different.⁠[1] The two were contemporaries and were at the peak of their careers when they began a brief friendship due to a mutual admiration of each other’s work.[⁠2] This post explores their relationship by looking at the… Read More Beuys and Warhol: Collaborations, 1979-1980

For the past few weeks, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of street-side election posters in Berlin. City elections take place on September 18, when two votes are held: German and E.U. citizens will vote for local representatives, while only Germans will elect their state representatives. (The somewhat complicated process is explained here.) Obviously,… Read More A Survey of Berlin’s Election Posters

In my adult life, I have only experienced Paris as the “city of love.” In other words, I’ve only ever gone there as a couple and never alone. Since my partner Kamyar is in Boston this summer and I am between apartments, I decided to make my first solo journey. Luckily I found out that even by myself,… Read More Escape to Paris

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve passed the Axel Springer building, which is located on the edge of former East Germany’s Mitte district and Western Kreuzberg. On my way along Oranienstraße by bike, bus, or on foot, the large imposing structure is at first remarkable because it has a small group of politically themed sculptures that… Read More Corporate Public Art as Political Propaganda

One of my favorite things about public art is that it allows you to experience a city in a new way. It informs the way that you view your own place within the spatial, social, and historic fabric, it enlivens your perspective, and it forces you to encounter new ideas, people and their stories. I’ve been living… Read More An Introduction to Berlin’s Public Art

Lately it seems like the academic world is abuzz with the word “interdisciplinary”—seminars, conferences, and even in job descriptions. Working with other specialists sounds nice in theory. Why not bring together people from different fields to solve the world’s most pressing problems? But does interdisciplinarity actually work? In my first two weeks in Berlin, I… Read More Does Interdisciplinarity Work?

After much fanfare, I finally decided to give the “new” Whitney a go last week. For several years now, i’ve watched the progression of the building as it slowly rose from an empty lot at the southern entrance to the High Line. Walking down from one of my more stressful jobs in Chelsea, the construction site was… Read More Thoughts on the “New” Whitney